A Method for Collecting Sporozoites of Plasmodium gallinaceum by Feeding Infected Aedes aegypti through Animal Membranes

Abstract

THE well-known difference between the resistance of blood-inoculated and mosquito-induced malaria indicates that sporozoites, or the stages arising immediately from them, are very resistant to the action of the known anti-malarial drugs. Since a true prophylactic drug, that is, one which will prevent sporozoite-induced infections, is the most urgent requirement in the chemotherapy of malaria, a method for testing drugs directly on sporozoites is of great importance. Hitherto the only method of doing this was to obtain sporozoites by the dissection of salivary glands from infected mosquitoes, which is both laborious and unsatisfactory, as the sporozoites are always mixed with and may be protected by fragments of the salivary gland cells. Thus it is difficult to obtain them in uniform suspension and to be sure that they are all exposed equally to the action of the admixed drugs being tested.